Refrigerator car structure



Jan. 7, 19410 v.5. WEST REFRIGERATOR CAR STRUCTURE Original Filed June 10, 1938 IIIIIII-FI'I 1N VENTOR. Wm 7 Wm,

I J? 1/? J ATTORNEY.

Patented Jan. 7, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFRIGERATOR CAR STRUCTURE Original application June 10, 1938, Serial No. 213,092. Divided and this application May 8, 1939, Serial No. 272,386

10 Claims.

The invention relates to refrigerator cars and more particularly to cars having the refrigerant near the roof, commonly called top bunker cars.

, A refrigerator car is a car having insulated walls, floor and roof and means for cooling the contents of the car during the warm months of the year and for heating the contents during the cold months. In the transportation of many kinds of fresh vegetables, fruits and meats it has been found important that these products be kept within a certain temperature range, depending on the product. If a product becomes too cold it freezes and its market value becomes less; also if it becomes too warm, ripening is hastened and its value decreased because of a shorter storage life.

The essential features of a refrigerator car, in addition to the insulated structure, are means for heating in winter and cooling in summer; provision for the circulation of air from the heating or cooling means to and through the lading, and means to support the lading in the car, usually at a distance above the floor to allow for air circulation between the lading and the floor. The commonly accepted type of refrigerator car is one with ice bunkers positioned adjacent the end walls of the car and separated from the lading compartment by a bulkhead. The air circulates under the bulkhead, up through the lading, and over the bulkhead back to the bunker. This is known as the end bunker car. Another type, known as the top .bunker car, has the ice bunkers near the roof from where the air circulates downwardly through flues associated with the Walls up through the lading and back to the ice bunkers.

Certain features embodied in this invention apply to any .type of refrigerator car, while others obviously apply only to a car having the ice bunkers adjacent the roof.

A number of years ago refrigerator cars were built with a wood framework, wood sheathing, and wood lining and insulated with various materials. Later the framework was made of steel, and only very recently have cars been built with steel sheathing and roof. Designers have been slow to adopt steel for refrigerator cars, partly because of the difficulty of repairing the steel sheathing if it is damaged.

Steel sheathed refrigerator cars are commonly built by erecting upon an underframe a steel outer wall or sheathing. Insulation blankets are then applied and the inside lining is secured in place. The ceiling and roof with insulation therebetween are also secured to the outer wall. If, due to defective construction or to damage during service, it becomes necessary to replace a sheet or post of the Wall, it is necessary to practically dismantle the car, removing lining and insulation. It is an object of this invention to construct the inner structure of the car entirely separately from the outer structure. It is then possible to remove and replace sheets of the side or roof without disturbing the insulation. This greatly reduces repair costs and also encourages the construction of steel sheathed refrigerator cars. One of the disadvantages of such cars has been the difliculty of repairing them, but this is now overcome by the construction disclosed here.

Another object of the invention is to position flues for the circulation of air between the inner and outer structures. It is a further object to thus maintain the outside width and wall thickness the same and at the same time to increase the inside width of the car. 1

It is another object of the invention to increase the efficiency of the insulation by constructing and supporting the inner and outer structures separately, thus eliminating the usual connections which are undesirable because they conduct heat from the outside to the inside.

Another object of the invention is to support the lining, ceiling and refrigerant containers directly on the underframe. This not only facilitates repairs to the outer structure, but provides a stronger car and also a lighter car because the outer wall has less load to support and can be made of thinner material.

Another object of the invention is to support the lading directly on the under-frame by arranging the floor rack stringers, beams which support the floor, and underfraine cross members substantially in a vertical plane, thereby transmitting the load directly to the underframe and relieving strain on other parts of the car. It is a further object of the invention to secure the floor rack 4 stringers to the floor. They may then be made of thinner material and the dead weight of the car decreased.

When a refrigerator car is engaged in a trip lasting several days the roof of the car is al-ternately heated by the sun shining thereon and cooled by contact with the cool night air. Each time the roof is cooled, the moisture in the air between the roof and ceiling is condensed and may leak through the roof and drip on the lading, thus damaging said lading. It is an object of this invention to provide a ceiling which will prevent the condensed moisture from reaohingthe lading.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a ceiling to which the refrigerant containers may be easily attached.

It is another object of the invention to provide a ceiling having ribs projecting intothe insulation thereabove to resist the tendency of the insulaztion to creep during the twisting and jolting which occurs during service movements of the car.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a transverse section of a refrigerator car having a portion broken away; the left half being taken on line ILIL of Fig. 2 and the right half on line IRIR of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal'section on line 22 of Fi 1.

The underframe 2 of the car comprises a center sill 3 extending longitudinally of the car and cross members 4 which consist of bolsters, cross bearers and cross ties. The outer side sills 5 comprise channel shaped members 6 secured to the cross members 4 and angles I secured to the channels 6. Outer frame members 8 and sheathing 9 are secured to the side sills 5 and support the outer roof structure III. The outer side plates II are secured to the frame members 8 and sheathing 9 at the topedge thereof. The roof It comprises a series of sheets I2 extending between the side plates I I, each of said sheets having an upwardly projecting central panel or corrugation I 3 and upturned marginal flanges I4. The sheets I2 are secured together by inverted channel shaped seam caps I5 covering the flanges I4 and secured thereto. A sub-floor I-S, made preferably of wood, to provide additional insulation, rests upon and is secured to the center sill 3, cross members 4 and outer side sills 5, thus forming a complete outer structure supported on the underframe 2.

A series of members 25 rest upon the sub-floor It above the cross members 4 and support a floor 24. Inner side sills comprise angles 25 secured to the members 25. The inner wall structure is formed by inner vertical frame members 27 and lining 28; the members 2'I being secured to the inner side plate 29. The ceiling 33 extends be- 45 tween the side plates 29 and is supported thereon; the ceiling 38 comprising a plurality of transversely extending sheets 31 having upturned flanges 32 at the margins thereof. The flanges 32 project inside a plurality of inverted channel 50 shaped seam caps 33 positioned above the ceiling 30. It is evident from the drawing that the inner structure comprising members 25, wall 27-28 and ceiling 36 is supported directly on the underframe 2 of the car independently of the outer struc- 55 ture.

A plurality of refrigerant containers 48 having foraminous sides ll and bottom 42 are positioned preferably in rows near the ceiling 3i) and extend longitudinally of the car adjacent each 60 lining 28. The containers it are suspended from the ceiling by elements 13 inserted between the upturned flanges 32 of adjacent sheets 3i and secured thereto by the rivets 44 which also secure the seam caps 33 to the ceiling sheets SI. Hatch 5 frames 45 formed from metallic sheets extend from above the roof If! to below the ceiling 32 and are positioned above the refrigerant containers 40. The hatches it are used to deposit refrigerant in the containers 6?).

An insulated partition 52 is positioned below each container #32 sloping slightly downwardly toward the side lining 28 to provide a passage 48 between the partition 50 and the container 48. An upright wall 5| projects upwardly from the 7 partition 50 adjacent the center of the car. A

plurality of vertical flues 52 formed preferably from thin metallic sheets 53 are between the sheathing 9 and lining 28, each flue 52 extending longitudinally of the car between the inner frame members 2'! and being adjacent the lining 28. As a means for supporting the lading I have shown a floor rack 54 comprising a. for-aminous floor consisting of a flat perforated sheet 55 secured, preferably by welding, to a corrugated perforated sheet 56; the sheets 55-55 being spaced from the floor 24 by a plurality of transversely extending stringers 51. I have shown the stringers 51 as Z-bars positioned above and secured to the members 25, thus supporting the lading directly on the members 25 and cross members 4. Securing the stringers 51 by one flange thereof to the members 25 makes it possible to form the stringers of thinner material than if the Z-bars were to rest unsecured upon the floor.

The refrigerant used in the type of car herein described is usually fresh water ice, ice mixed with salt to produce a lower temperature, or frozen brine, known as eutectic ice. The melted ice drips through the foraminous bottom 42 of the container, flows down the inclined partition 50 to the lower'edge thereof, down the flues 52 to the floor 24 of the car, from which it drains into the gutters 65 and from the gutter to outside the car through water sealed drains provided for that purpose, but not shown on the drawing. The path of the air circulation is :om the lading space 66 upwardly through the duct 81 formed by the upright walls 5|, through the foraminous walls 4I42 of the container where it is cooled by the refrigerant therein, downwardly through the flues 52 and into the space 68 under the floor rack 56. It is then free to rise from this space through the perforations in the sheets 5556 absorbing heat from the lading as it rises toward the duct 61 to repeat the cycle.

The insulation I0, shown on the drawing, substantially fills the space between the outer structure which comprises sub-floor I6, sheathing 9 and roof ID and the inner structure which com.- prises floor 24, lining 28 and ceiling 30. The inner and outer structures are spaced apart at all points except at the members 25 which are the only means of support between the inner and outer structures, therefore, the car may be very efliciently insulated.

The flues 52 are positioned adjacent the lining and extend substantially between the vertical frame members 21. This is indicated by the dotted lines and arrows in Fig. 2. In Fig. 1 the left half of the section is on line I A-IA of Fig. 2,

showing the construction through the flue 52,

while the right half of Fig. 1, on line IBIB of Fig. 2, shows the construction through a post 21.

The gutter 65 disclosed in this application is disclosed and claimed in my co-pending application Serial No. 213,089, filed June 10, 1938, and the side wall flue 52 shown herein. is claimed in my co-pending application Serial No. 213,090, filed June 10, 1938.

The accompanying drawing illustrates the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

This is a division of my application Serial No. 213,092, filed June 10, 1938.

I claim:

wardly from said frame members.

2. In a refrigerator car having an underframe comprising spaced apart transversely disposed parts extending substantially between opposite side margins of the car, spaced apart members arranged to be each supported solely by one of said underframe parts, a main floor supported by said members, inner side sills supported on said main floor adjacent the outer ends of said underframe parts, inner frame members secured in an upstanding position to said sills, and outer sheathing spaced outwardly from said frame members.

3. In a refrigerator car having an underframe comprising spaced apart transversely disposed parts extending substantially between opposite side margins of the car, a sub-floor supported by said parts, spaced apart members above said subfloor arranged to be each supported solely by one of said underframe parts, inner side sills extending between and supported by said members adjacent the outer ends of said underframe parts, a main floor extending between said sills, insulation between said main floor and said subfloor, inner frame members having a lining attached thereto secured in an upstanding position to said sills, outer sheathing spaced outwardly from said frame members and insulation between said sheathing and said lining.

4. In a refrigerator car having an underframe comprising spaced apart transversely disposed parts extending substantially between opposite side margins of the car, spaced apart members arranged to be each supported solely by one of said underframe parts, inner side sills extending between and supported by said members adjacent the outer ends of said underframe parts, a main floor extending between said sills, inner frame members secured in an upstanding position to said sills, outer sheathing spaced outwardly from said frame members, and means to secure said sheathing to said underframe parts, said means comprising outer side sills extending longitudinally of the car.

5. In a refrigerator car having an underframe comprising spaced apart transversely disposed parts extending substantially between opposite side margins of the car, members arranged so that said parts provide supports therefor, each of said members being disposed substantially in its entirety above one of said underframe parts, inner side sills extending between and supported by said members adjacent the outer ends of said underframe parts, a main floor extending between said sills, inner frame members secured in an upstanding position to said sills, and outer sheathing spaced outwardly from said frame members.

6. In a refrigerator car having an underframe comprising spaced apart transversely disposed parts extending substantially between opposite side margins of the car, a sub-floor extending between and supported by said parts, spaced apart members arranged to be each supported solely by one of said underfrarne parts, a main floor supported by said members, inner side sills supported on said main floor adjacent the outer ends of said underframe parts, inner frame members having a lining attached thereto secured in an upstanding position to said sills, outer sheathing spaced outwardly from said frame members and insulation between said sheathing and said lining.

7. In a refrigerator car having spaced apart walls and a floor, stringers secured rigidly along the length thereof to said floor, and a foraminous flooring resting upon the upper surface of said stringers, said foraminous flooring being hinged to one of said walls so that it may be swung upwardly about a horizontal axis.

8. In a refrigerator car having spaced apart walls and a floor, substantially vertical fiues associated with said walls, stringers secured to said floor extending transversely to said Walls, a foraminous flooring resting upon the upper surface of said stringers thereby forming a plurality of ducts between said floors communicating with said flues at the lower ends thereof, and means to induce air currents downwardly through said flues, said foraminous flooring being hinged to one of said walls so that it may be swung upwardly about a horizontal axis.

9. In a refrigerator car having spaced apart walls and a floor, substantially vertical flues associated with said walls, stringers secured to said floor, a foraminous flooring resting upon the upper surface of said stringers thereby forming a space between said floors communicating with said flues at the lower ends thereof, and means to induce air currentsdownwardly through said flues, said foraminous flooring being hinged to one of said walls so that it may be swung upwardly about a horizontal axis.

10. In a refrigerator car having an underframe comprising spaced apart transversely disposed parts extending substantially between opposite side margins of the car, spaced apart members each supported solely by one of said underframe parts, a main floor supported by said members, inner side sills supported by said members above said main floor and adjacent the outer ends of said underframe parts, inner frame members secured in an upstanding position to said sills, and outer sheathing spaced outwardly from said frame members.

VICTOR E. WEST. 

